GIRLS LACROSSE: OJR edges Spring-Ford in OT

ROYERSFORD — Owen J. Roberts had played hard and well through 50 minutes of regulation play and had led by as many as five goals in the second half of Monday night’s key Pioneer Athletic Conference girls lacrosse match at Spring-Ford.

However, in a way, that hadn’t done the Wildcats much good after the Rams tied it up with 21 seconds left to send the contest into overtime, with the win going to the first team to score. But the visitors put together one more good burst as they controlled the draw to begin the overtime session and Jess Harsch scored just 16 seconds into the extra session off a free position to give the Wildcats a 12-11 win at Coach McNelly Stadium.

Kerry Huzzard and Devin Hassinger each scored three for OJR (9-3, 12-3), which won its eighth straight league game to move just ahead of the Rams (8-3, 8-5) in the battle for the second Final Four playoff spot from the Liberty Division. Sasha Wozniak scored four and Kira Gensler three for Spring-Ford.

“They’re a good team, a very skilled team,” Owen J. Roberts coach Amy Stone said concerning the Rams, who led only once all night at 1-0, but stormed back with five straight goals over a nine-minute span after falling behind by a 9-4 score and tied the count two more times after OJR had taken 10-9 and 11-10 leads in the last five minutes. “But we really kept our composure. From the first minute to the last minute, we played our game … kept it clean, got the balls on the ground, and worked hard. And it paid off.”

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Gensler had tied the score at 9-9 with 9:09 to go off a feed from Juliana Radzinski. Then Maddie Gebert passed to Katie Dempsey to put OJR back on top briefly before Radzinski tied it again off an assist from Wozniak with 4:16 remaining.

Spring-Ford had a chance to take the lead 45 seconds after that, but Wildcat sophomore goalie Devon Hennessey made a stop on a free position. Gebert scored with three minutes to go to put OJR back on top before Gensler scored her third goal of the second half after OJR turned it over with just under a minute to go.The Rams ran out of time before they could get a shot off after the visitors again lost the ball with 12 seconds remaining.

Then Dempsey snatched the ball out of the air off the draw to start the OT and got the ball downfield to Harsch, who was fouled and put the ball in the net for the win.

“We’ve been asking her to do that all year and she finally did,” Stone said concerning Harsch, a Ursinus College-bound senior.

“We had to work with the fouls that we had,” said Harsch. “We were all connecting. Our team winning this year is connected to patience and the practice we’ve put in. It’s paying off.”

The Wildcats had scored three straight after an opening goal by Katherine Connelly and led by a 6-3 count at the half.

“We came into this game thinking we have it, just because we beat them the first time (11-9),” said Ram coach Amy Short. “We take it for granted. I give Owen J. a ton of credit. They’re very aggressive, they beat us to groundballs, and they won the draws.”

Still, there might have been just a two goal difference at the half if not for a big save by Hennessey at the buzzer.

“Our goalie has had a fantastic two weeks,” said Stone. “She has really stepped up when we needed her. We’ve won the last three games by one goal and she has been very critical in that.”

Wozniak did manage to get the hosts to within two just two minutes into the second half. Then Maddie Stone countered for the Wildcats and Hassinger and Huzzard both scored during a Ram penalty for the 9-4 advantage before the Rams began their comeback with some pinpoint passing.

“Threading the needle like we were in the beginning of the season,” said Short. “I give my team credit for battling back. But it’s a frustrating season. We have the talent.”

Much can still happen the rest of the week to decide the playoff spot. Methacton is still in the chase with four losses, but has three games remaining, including one against undefeated Boyertown. Spring-Ford will host Methacton on Wednesday night and play Upper Perkiomen on Friday while OJR will finish up with Perkiomen Valley.

But whatever the outcome, the Wildcats have made quite an improvement over the course of the year, according to Harsch.

“Like night and day,” she said. “It’s amazing how much change we’ve had. We’ve had the most improvement of all the four years I’ve been here. We’ve got a great coaching staff. The freshman, the seniors … all ages on the team have contributed equally.”

NOTES

The game-winner was the only goal of the night for Harsch, but she contributed a game-high four assists. … Dempsey scored twice and Molly Minahan added a goal for the winners. … Wozniak and Radzinski also had two assists and Brianna Cirino and Anna Charlebois a goal each for the Rams.